


Perfection Redefined

by Nessa_T



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: AU, M/M, happy!fic, marriage!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 12:45:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5744314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nessa_T/pseuds/Nessa_T
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dorian is getting twitchy after his marriage to The Bull.</p><p>Bull, as always, is having none of that shit.</p><p>Setting: AU. Dorian has told his Father to shove his disapproval up his wit's end and married the man he loves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perfection Redefined

Iron Bull knew from the first time he met the mage that Dorian was a clever man. He was in fact very quick to grasp ideas; a highly intelligent individual who made up for his inability to be quiet for more than ten minutes with his good looks and soft-as-cotton heart. Yet, despite that, Bull sometimes had the nagging suspicion that Dorian was never able to fully understand what he had gotten into the moment he said “I do”. Simply put, Dorian Pavus was losing his bloody mind – and Bull was ready to bounce off the walls in sheer frustration.

The day of the marriage had come and gone, yet Dorian still hasn’t lost that nervous twitch Bull remembered seeing during the ceremony. Dorian, it was revealed, had obsessively twiddled with his cuff-links, looking strangely uncomfortable in his expensive robes while he waited for Bull’s arrival. But Bull, being Bull, hadn’t bothered with the dress code and had turned up in horrendous pink pants, no shirt and no shoes. Dorian was astonished, of course, but calmed down just enough to say the two words that made them husband and… well, husband.

The initial shock of seeing Bull thusly dressed seemed to have a lasting impression upon the mage. Today, two months after their little wedding, that “nervous twitch” Dorian had been exhibiting seemed to have developed into a strange form of panic. 

It manifested itself in ways Bull had neither seen nor experienced before – strange things that he hadn’t expected Dorian to do. Like Dorian’s attempt to hire a servant to cook Bull’s favourite meals for example (No, Bull didn't need one. There's only so many ways you can braise a nug). Or a butler to ensure that Bull's own pants are kept hidden away permanently, replacing them with crap that pinches and rubs his junk whenever he moved, leaving him with a perpetual erection. 

And then there’s Dorian’s obsession with housekeeping – _obsession_ being the word of emphasis here. ‘Like right now, for instance,’ Bull thought as he leaned against the doorway to their bedroom, hands folded across his chest while he watched Dorian feverishly at work.

“Kadan,” Bull said with a sigh. He ran a hand over his face, suddenly feeling old and tired.

“What?” the mage answered before wrestling with the bed sheets, pulling and tugging at the corners. The sheets put up a good fight, refusing to budge and Dorian was defeated for the moment, flopping upon the bed with a huff of annoyance.

“Bloody sheets won’t come off,” he muttered, irritably running his fingers through his hair till he resembled something like a hedgehog. 

“Of course they won’t,” Bull answered as he approached the figure that was helplessly sprawled across the bed. “You pinned the corners down the night before.”

That caught his attention.

“Why did I do that?” Dorian asked, looking confused for the moment before his expression cleared up, bounded out of bed and then attempted to lift the mattress to remove the pins that securely held the sheets.

Bull was behind Dorian in a heartbeat and had his arms wrapped around Dorian’s lean waist in two. The latter paused for a while, throwing a questioning look over his shoulder before he straightened and turned motionless.

“Because,” Bull murmured, pressing his lips against the shell of Dorian’s ear, “the sheets kept coming off whenever we have sex. Remember?”

Dorian’s ears turned hot and red.

“Of course. Well, I want them off now. It needs a good wash,” he mumbled, gesturing vaguely toward the almost invisible spot at the inconspicuous corner of the material. 

“I don’t think so. It looks fine to me,” Bull insisted as his hands slid from Dorian’s waist to his thighs before framing the sides of Dorian’s crotch with his fingers.

Dorian shifted a bit and cleared his throat, but remained silent. Bull took that as an opportunity to finally bring up the issues that had been bothering him for the past couple of weeks – albeit with caution of course. The Tevinter mage's temper was legendary and was altogether quite unpredictable.

“Erm, Dorian?” Bull began hesitantly as he gently palmed the front of Dorian’s pants.

And then came the curt reply. “What?”

“You don’t have to do this you know,” Bull murmured, his warm breath tickling Dorian’s ear.

“Do what?” Dorian choked out, turning his head to send a look of confusion at Bull.

Bull took a deep breath and turned Dorian around till they were standing chest to chest before each other.

“You don’t have to do _this_ ,” Bull said, gesturing towards the bed, “To try so hard to make things perfect all the time. You don’t have to do all that for _me_.”

There was a pause in which Bull’s eye gazed into Dorian’s, wanting him to understand (with just a look) that there was no need to make himself more perfect in Bull’s eye than he already was. He had half-expected the mage to be on the defensive, really, as he was wont to do should he find himself in an uncomfortable situation. Yet, that didn’t happen. Instead, Dorian dropped his gaze and merely looked embarrassed. 

“I did get carried away a bit, didn’t I?” he murmured, giving a self-deprecating laugh.

“Yeah. Yeah, you did,” Bull said with a smile, rubbing his nose against Dorian’s in a gesture of affection. 

“I just wanted things to be perfect,” Dorian insisted.

Bull nodded in understanding and paused for a moment, pondering upon what to say without getting a fireball to the face. He gave up after a few seconds and decided to say the first thing that came to his mind.

“I know, but _you_ are perfect. You and this marriage. They’re all that matter to me and you know that,” he answered and grinned a bit as Dorian raised an eyebrow at his direction.

“And of course, there’s your majestic tower of masculinity,” Bull continued, relieved that Dorian was taking this entire episode pretty well.

“My what?”

“… that seems to be in want of attention right now.”

“Look, if you’re going to continue talking like this, I’m going back to rearranging the furniture.”

Of course Bull said no more and both he and Dorian became relatively quiet (save for the intermittent rasp of incoherent syllabus emitting from both parties) for the next hour or so before the Qunari finally collapsed upon Dorian in exhaustion and promptly lost the ability for speech.

“The room’s a mess,” Dorian mumbled into the pillow, surveying the pile of discarded clothes that were strewn about the floor through blurry eyes.

“I call this a work of art. Perfection if you will,” Bull answered after he caught his breath and curled up against Dorian in an attempt to get comfortable.

“I think this brings a new definition to the word “perfection”, don’t you think?” Dorian whispered, already on the brink of falling asleep. He had a smile upon his face.

“I do,” came the short answer before they both curled up together and refused to move for a long, long time.

**********

_Two months ago…_

_The Iron Bull, do you come before this gathering of friends…_

“Where the hell are your shirt and shoes?”

_…and family to celebrate your love for Dorian Pavus and to commit your life to him?_

“Don’t have them.”

_Do you pledge to love, comfort and protect him, affirm him, respect him, and care for him?_

“It is highly inappropriate given the situation, don’t you think?”

_To express your thoughts and emotions to him and to listen to his…_

“Well, it depends. Are you marrying me or my clothes?”

_… in times of joy and of sorrow, in times of wealth and of need?_

“I don’t think that’s the point here.”

_To encourage and inspire him, while committing to grow, love and advance together in faith, honesty and determination?_

“I do.”

_And you, Dorian Pavus, do you come before this gathering of friends…_

“Oh great. I've hired artists from Orlais to paint a portrait of us and you don’t have any shirt on.”

_…and family to celebrate your love for The Iron Bull and to commit your life to him?_

“But you love me anyway, right?”

_Do you pledge to love, comfort and protect him, affirm him, respect him, and care for him?_

“Of course, you big lummox. I’m sorry. I’m just a little nervous, that’s all. Want things to be perfect and all, you know?”

_To express your thoughts and emotions to him and to listen to his in times of joy and of sorrow, in times of wealth and of need?_

“But things are already perfect, kadan. If this isn’t perfection, then I suppose the word "perfection" itself must be redefined, don't you agree?”

_To encourage and inspire him, while committing to grow, love and advance together in faith, honesty and determination?_

“Yes. Yes, I do.”


End file.
